For some reason my long-term visa for Vietnam wasn’t processed, so when my 90 days from coming back in from Laos last October had only 6 hours left before expiring, I checked out and went from Hanoi to Bangkok. The round-trip flight was only 126usd, and barely over 100 minutes flying time each way. I had gone to Thailand for the first time in 18 years just 6 months earlier, but that was in a controlled environment. This time I was free to roam around.
Pr. Songrit who treated me so well 20 years ago when I went to Thailand, letting me stay at a room in the Chinese church. He and I spent a couple of hours then clearing a field where he wanted to stay a training school. I talked to him on the phone this time, but couldn’t meet him. He’s still with that same Chinese church!Prayer room. Hey! That sounds like where I want to go. 🙂This light reflection on the floor is mesmerizing.Prayer room is only for Muslims!Getting close to DMK airport (the old one) in Bangkok. It’s always interesting to me to see the long, straight streets. I’m pretty sure it has to do with the rice fields being sold in long strips in the past.So I walked out of the airport (finding how to cross the 8 lanes or so was an adventure) and got to 63 Zleep Hostel at 11:58pm. The lady kindly showed me a dorm room after I paid her 200thb (6.6usd). I wound up staying here 2 nights, skipped a night, then one more night. She seemed to be tired of seeing me by the last day – LoL.Bus stop right in front of DMK airport. There is a footbridge over all the traffic at the northern end of the airport, near the shuttle buses to BKK, the main airport.24 hour bonging legal business in Thailand, but I’ve heard there are many who want to shut them down for attracting odd people.Temple on the other side of the foot bridge from the bus stop. They are garish and all over the place. Thailand needs Jesus.More people speak passable English than 18 years ago, and the English school thing isn’t as big as it used to be.This is Thailand Adventist Mission’s new headquarters. It was completed just last year. Thailand seemed to be about twice as rich as Vietnam. The Mission has lost its mission, it seems, as there were no evangelistic magazines or pamphlets there for guests, and the worker I met said that Ellen White books must be approved by a committee (and left off the part that the committee never meets). There is no publishing house, as they made good on what they told me in 2006 when I wanted to print the 1858 Great Controversy book, that they would do that. No vision.The old church on the Mission compound is still there. I was told there are lots of Burmese there now. There was a sizable group of them there 18 years ago. There is also an Adventist school to the right side of that, run by the Mission, and a huge Adventist secondary school just outside the compound (Ekamai) that is quite liberal/compromised. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=13095Road sign to Mission off of main road.Normal street-side food vendor. You can see lunch prices are 50-60thb (1.70-1.9usd), twice the price in Hanoi. SE Asia street food is not good at all – spicy odd things floating in something, usually tiny bits of dead animals.MBK center with the Japanese shop Donki (Don Quijote). This was the largest mall in Asia when opened in 1985.I’ve bot many rice balls at Donki (ドンキ) in Japan, but even the “39” ones you see here are twice what I paid in Japan, and they’re the cheapest ones! They had strawberries from Japan for sale for $26/tray!MBK mall inside.Lots of foreigners had disfigured themselves, causing me to tell a Vietnamese friend that their ancestors went overseas to get the pagans to stop doing that to their bodies, and now their descendants are the ones needing converting!Central World and Big C shopping center in the center of the shopping capital of all SE Asia.That cool building in the distance was fascinating.I knew that Hindu ideas were in Thai Buddhism, but it’s not usually so open, and directly supporting it. And this is on Big C’s sign, so I guess they were having some sale, using that idol as promotion – gross. And that’s one of the grossest Hindu gods!Crazy expensive durian ($38). But they sure made my mouth water!Pantip was THE place to go for computer-related things 18 years ago. I got a laptop repaired, and bot a new one that I sent for recycling in Japan just before I left. I thot it had closed by now, but I see it is still open, with the first floor taken over by a Big C and coffee shops.Back at the airport charging my phone, using wifi, and eating dinner with my haul from Big C. The family in front of me spent about $140 on stuff there. I did OK with my $4 haul.My bunk spot for $6.6. Had same spot all 3 nites.Morning walk to the train station over the black, smelly, trashy river.Haven’t been able to do this in ages, as Japan has upgraded nearly all their trains to not allow the windows to be down. It felt really good.hdrhdrface enhancehdrhdrhdrhdrhdr
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